Op-Ed: The hit-man who ran a CIA assassination unit

The CIA’s traditional role in assassinations was up until now speculated in private, but never proven or publicly debated. However, the work of Evan Wright, the award-winning journalist, uncovers the undercover activities of a secret CIA unit.

According to Wright, the post-9/11 era was the turning point in the CIA’s relationship with the President even as the most dreaded secret agency in the world made strategic shift in the way it operated. President Bush’s 2001 executive order gave the CIA the ultimate power to murder perceived enemies while absolving the President and the other elected functionaries from responsibility.

One of the greatest secrets of the post-9/11 era was the President’s approval to create a top secret assassination unit within the CIA aimed at striking down Al-Quaeda operatives. The agency outsourced this job to the private security firm Blackwater. According to Wright, “It seems to have marked the first time the U.S. government outsourced a covert assassination service to private enterprise.”

While the Presidential order turned the CIA into the ultimate killing machine, the man responsible for running the terror machine was Enrique Prado, a high ranking CIA officer turned Blackwater employee.

According to Wright, Prado who overlooked the assassination units of the CIA as well as the contractor was a trigger happy devil. His record was tainted by seven murders while he worked as a bodyguard for a narco crime boss.

The CIA defended him as unavailable for questioning. Investigation against him was shut down, so he was never arrested or tried.

Wright investigated the covert acts of terror perpetrated by the outsourced firm of which Prado was in-charge with the mandate “to kill people with precision, without getting caught.” At least two sources informed Wright that the unit began “whacking people like crazy”.

Prado’s resume appears lifted straight out of a Hollywood thriller. A top American spy against China and deputy to counter-terrorism chief Cofer Black, he is a veteran of central American wars who oversaw the CIA’s operation in Korea followed by a stint at Blackwater.

However, the most intriguing aspect of his career is having started out as a hitman for a notorious Miami mobster and continuing to work for the mob even while working in CIA. Finally, he took over the charge of CIA’s assassination squad against Al-Quaeda.

Wright unfolds the fascinating mystery of Prado in his aptly titled e-book How to Get Away with Murder in America.

Ricky Prado, the boyhood friend of Albert San Pedro, a.k.a. “the maniac” who eventually became an influential person in South Florida and a major trafficker, proved ultimately loyal to him whether as his hit-man or as a senior CIA operative.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com